A Holy Diet

During Lent, we take a long, hard look at a few ordinary activities: choosing, cooking and eating food. This is the season when many farm animals give birth to their babies.  Then they nurse their young on milk.  It’s a time of year when birds lay eggs and wait for the eggs to hatch.  By eating less meat or eggs or milk for a few weeks–which is an old tradition during Lent–we can help a new generation of animals get off to a healthy springtime start.

In many places in the world today, late winter and early spring is a time when the foods that people stored during the past fall begin to run out.  So everyone fasts together.  That helps the food last longer.  It can help all the people to survive.

Even if we can buy food any time from a supermarket, fasting together during Lent can remind us that we must care for each other.  We need to keep all hungry people in mind.  We are all living on this planet together.  What one person does eventually affects everybody.  The earth is like Noah’s ark.

So every Lent, for 40 days we are very careful to watch what we eat.  We streamline our eating to give more time to prayer and charity.  The good of our fellow humans, the good of our souls and the good of our planet make strong motives.